The social entertainment activity of script killing has shown a blowout trend around 2021. According to the "2022 Scripted Entertainment Industry Development Report", in 2022, the operating income of the national scripted entertainment industry exceeded 17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45%. During the May Day holiday that year, the number of consumers in scripted entertainment business venues exceeded 4 million. Script Kill builds an immersive "story world" for players, and once became the first choice for young people's cultural consumption, attracting a large number of businesses to enter the game.
The beginning of the rage will inevitably bring the end of the rage - less than ten years after "killing" the country, the script killing not only did not usher in the next rising period, but the situation took a sharp turn. Some netizens shared that many script killing shops near their homes have disappeared, in fact, the income of script killing businesses has plummeted, and the "closing tide" has been staged across the country; the attention to script killing has plummeted, replaced by camping, music festivals, concerts and other forms of cultural consumption, and the player base of script killing has been continuously diluted...... From the peak to the door, in the future, will there be an inflection point in the script killing?
From being addicted to not playing
If you talk about script killing in 2021, "addiction" must be the key word used to describe it at that time. That year was at the peak of market development, and the script quickly entered the public eye with the label of "immersive experience". Through scenes, scripts, DMs (the host of script killing), NPCs (non-player characters), and players, we can jointly build a virtual world with ups and downs. At that time, script killing had been developed for many years, and the industry chain was gradually improving, covering four links: authors, distributors, stores, and players. The form of experience is relatively innovative, and it has evolved into various types such as reasoning, emotion, joy, horror, and camp. The duration of the game ranged from three or four hours to seven or eight hours, and the price also rose from a few dozen yuan to more than a hundred yuan.
Social games and "escaping reality" are the two magic weapons that script kills young people to indulge in. With the script as the mediator, the player uses role-playing to temporarily establish a set of social relationships and substitute a story. They can interact socially with other players under the mask of this virtual character, so as to vent their emotions and get unknown emotional experiences. Or even a brief escape from reality to reap the joy. According to a survey on "what do young people want to get in the script killing", immersive experience has a strong sense of atmosphere, decompression and exclusive enjoyment of a "new life", and strengthens logical reasoning ability, ranking in the top three. The reporter interviewed Wang Hao, a script killing player, "Script killing is a big hit in the social circle." The friends around me felt that this experience was very special and made appointments one after another. We were able to type a dozen books a month. He said that back then, script killing became the first choice for young people's daily gatherings and team building.
Now focus on script killing, and young people's interest is much less than before. Some time ago, Wang Hao asked a friend to play a few games of script killing, "Every time there is only one of us in the store playing script killing, the other rooms are empty." He told reporters that it is not easy to form a vehicle now. "It takes six or more players, it's getting harder and harder to form a game, and my friends either don't like to play the script or don't have time. ”
The fact that the heat has subsided, the script killing practitioner feels it most obviously. Compared with previous years, the number of script killing stores in Jinan has decreased sharply, and even well-known script killing chain stores are also streamlining their scale. With the increase in the number of games of script killing, players' requirements for books are also increasing. DM Yangyang (pseudonym) revealed to reporters: "It is not an exaggeration to describe the situation of script killing with the sunset industry, the reduction of players is one thing, and the lack of high-quality books cannot be ignored." The reporter saw that a well-known chain of script killing shops in Jinan ranked in the top three of the script list, "Shaliye Under the Moon", "Notorious" and "Xi and Lost Flame", all of which were still "old books" launched a few years ago. As a consumable that is quickly eliminated, the script is mostly experienced by players at one time, providing instant pleasure and discarding it after use. If you don't have an excellent new book as a selling point, it will be difficult to circle fans again. The decline in the quality of scripts, the loss of players, and the closure of businesses are common phenomena in various places, and the problems in different links have pushed the script killing industry to the edge.
Faced with multiple dilemmas
As an immersive experience reasoning game, players play with a sense of experience. Compared with online apps, offline physical stores can bring players a more immersive experience. The script is the core of the script killing, and it plays a vital role in the creation of immersion.
In reality, script killing is a common problem in the content industry - piracy is rampant. On an e-commerce platform, the reporter found that the electronic version of the script killing high-definition printable (6000+ copies) only costs 6.6 yuan. The promotional image reads, "What others have, we have it, Don't look for it, it's enough to have our set", and it will be "updated in time". In addition,Excellent books are easy to be plagiarized.,Some people even copy the classic IP directly.。 Not long ago, Shengqu Games issued an article saying that the first case of script killing infringement of online game IP in the country: "Legend" won. This is the first typical case in China to determine that script killing infringes the intellectual property rights of online games, involving multiple dimensions such as copyright, trademark rights and unfair competition. As an emerging industry, compared with books with a mature distribution and publishing system, scripts are in a gray area and lack the necessary supervision. In addition to piracy and infringement, some scripts will also involve pornography, violence and other content.
Compared to cheap piracy, stores need to pay real money for high-quality scripts. In order to ensure the player experience, the store needs to introduce new high-quality scripts. At present, the scripts on the market are roughly divided into three categories: boxed, city-limited and city-exclusive, and the prices are increasing in turn. Like a city exclusive, a book is priced at a few thousand yuan. In addition, in order to ensure an immersive experience, some stores will carefully set up and configure holographic projection technology. It is understood that the investment in stores in first- and second-tier cities is expected to require 200,000-500,000 yuan, and the third- and fourth-tier cities and counties need 100,000-200,000 yuan. In addition, the store needs to buy at least 2-4 new scripts every month. If the store wants to increase its attractiveness through city-limited scripts, the average annual cost of buying scripts is more than 40,000 yuan. Once the book can't attract new players, these costs will become a "burden".
Aside from the script, as a key player driving the plot, the DM level directly affects the player experience. There aren't many good DMs in reality. On the one hand, DM training has not yet formed a standard with industry recognition, and it is difficult to replicate high-quality DM; on the other hand, DM needs to study the script in advance and understand the script in actual combat, so as to have a more comprehensive grasp of the script. From Xiaobai to "Taizhu", DM has a long way to go. For many people, DM is more of a part-time job, and many will leave after a short stay. DM "Wu Mumu" said: "Now I see my colleagues and friends who used to have a good relationship with me quit the script circle or choose to rest due to physical reasons, I don't know when I started to feel that I didn't like the script more and more, and I began to play the script. In fact, DM's salary is not as high as expected, and many of them are "generating electricity for love", which is considered to be the rice of youth.
Where is the inflection point in the future?
Is the script killing really a thing of the past? It may be too early to draw conclusions. When the script killing industry has experienced a big hit, calm down, and explore new directions with a more rational vision. The innovation of form and content is the soul of script killing.
High-quality script creation is the proper meaning of retaining core players, and the industry is inseparable from people who do scripts in a down-to-earth manner. For example, the "Sun, Moon, Star, Light and Shadow" series launched by Scarecrow Studios is known as "the closest script to the cinematic universe". The first of them, "Shaliye Under the Moon", was released in 2019 and is still a popular script for script killing shops, with 160,000 people on the Mystery Circle App tagging it to play. Digitalization provides new ideas for the development of the industry, and skillfully uses VR, AR, holographic projection and other technologies to enhance the deep immersion experience of players. In the "Sun, Moon, Star, Light and Shadow" series, the latest "Ghost of the Stars" jumped out of the traditional script killing "reading, collecting evidence, group chatting, and pushing the murderer" mode, and incorporated more shocking scene innovation.
"Script Kill +" expands the boundaries and space of script creation, which will bring a huge market. Script killing, which integrates entertainment, reasoning, and socialization, is naturally highly inclusive, and "Star Detective" itself is a successful example of "script killing + variety show". In essence, the script killing itself is narrative, and its core is excellent stories, and these stories can be all-encompassing. Therefore, "Script Kill +" will move players from the square inch to a broader world. At present, "Script Kill +" has been tried in many fields. In the cultural tourism industry, script killing has become an innovative means to effectively expand customers, and many scenic spots rely on their own resource characteristics to launch immersive script killing projects, allowing tourists to transform from viewers to participants, and gain a new experience of cultural tourism. In the medical industry, Lianyungang East Hospital in Jiangsu Province planned and carried out script killing activities such as "Patient of the Medical Dynasty" and "Silent Blind Spot" with the help of the "Hospital Open Day" activity. In addition, there are also "script killing + theater", "script killing + education" and so on. At the same time, industry supervision has emerged, and a series of special policies have been introduced in response to the chaos in the script killing industry.
From soaring all the way to slowing down, at least, Script Kill is still steadily moving forward in the direction of exploring the future - as long as there are more possibilities, the vitality of Script Kill is still strong.
(Popular Daily, Popular News Client Reporter Zhu Ziyu, Intern Wang Ruimin)